The 'Whirlpool's' fox & bird
by SunakoAkuma
Summary: After 13 years of war Naruto and Neji are the last ones left. Kurama sends them back into the past, refusing to die. They swear that they don't let their past happen again.
1. Chapter 1

The world was quiet in a way it shouldn't be. No birds singing, no rusting of leaves in a gentle breeze. Simply silence. Nothing more, nothing less. The only noise in this world of crushing silence was wheezing. And yet strangely it calmed her, despite the fact that is was laced with pain and that she knew it would be all gone soon.

"You still here?" His voice calmed her, as it after all was one of the few familiar things left in this wasteland.

"Yeah, still here." Silence surrounded them, like the corpses did. Burned remains, rotten or simply just bones. The stench of rot strongly in the air. Their world was one, that could not be described as one anymore. No more life. Simply afterlife waited. Opened its jaws wide, them already being in its reach. 13 years of war had made a once beautiful land into this wasteland. The numbers were ironic too. The first 13 years of life had - till then - been her worst, after that had gotten into what she would now call a paradise. Then the war came and death took every life it could grasp. The first of the Konoha 11 to fall had shockingly been Kiba. Took a direct attack of a reanimated enemy to save Hinata. After all an Inuzuka always protects his pack even if it costs him his life. While the war had continued to tear apart their forces, they mourned badly, but it led that they survived the longest. It took their comrades death to realize how bad this situation they were in truly was.

Pain shot through her body, causing her to gasp and blood get into her lungs. Coughing and simply driven by old and trained instincts, she managed to survive this fit, but would she the next? Next to her, her only surviving companion had managed to move just as little, to check if she was still there, still with him. His breathing was shallower than it had been before, causing her to panic lightly. She really didn't want to die, but in a world like this she really didn't want to live either. That reminded her, she had a promise to fulfil.

"Kurama…" Her voice was weak, a mere whisper compared to her younger years.

**"Like hell I'd want to be in a world like this. I refuse to go down like this, like starving dog. Make sure the Hyuga next to you stays awake, I'll need his eyes to navigate." **

"Huh?" No matter how close they were and how well they knew each other, Kurama just confused her at times. She still trusted him and grabbed Neji's hand and sent a small amount of Kurama's leftover chakra into his system. Not nearly enough to possible harm or cause pain - not any more anyways -, but enough for Kurama to take control over Neji's body for a few minutes.

"What is the fox thinking?" His voice was heavy with pain, not from the actually corrosive chakra, but from the countless wounds on his body, especially the injury from the rib that pierced his lung. She smiled, thinking of his relation with her tenant. Not many in Konoha had taken the idea of the Kyuubi helping them good, only the surviving of the Konoha 11 had taken to it well. Shocked that she was his jailor, but supportive. That was all the two needed. Trust and a chance to prove themselves.

"Who knows… I sure don't. He seems to need your eyes for something." She heard Neji snort, the topic of eyes and being sealed had lost its pain after Naruto had ripped that seal of his head. Since Kiba's death, they all carried a seal that hindered any reanimation jutsu on them, so they could rest in peace, without having to worry, being their comrades next enemy anymore. All to prevent the pain. The pain of being attacked by the ones you loved, attacking the ones you loved. Soon all shinobi wore the seal, just to prevent more pain for the surviving. Some going so far to suicide bomb themselves, to prevent any kind of reanimation, even despite the seal. It had been a mess, it was a mess.

**"I have no idea, if this will work or not. It is a one-time deal, but again. I would rather die than roam these lands for an eternity." **

"Kurama… what is your plan?" Naruto wheezed, knowing that Neji would be hearing Kurama as well due to the chakra.

**"I have no plan, you do though. Make sure that this mess doesn't escalate again or goes down the drain worse. I really don't want to be stuffed into a statue or be manipulated again."**

Naruto had no clue what to do what that comment, similar to Neji, who actually might have, if he weren't in that much pain to think straight and concentrate on anything else than surviving, whatever Kurama was doing. Then suddenly all she could sense was pain. Pain worse than anything she had felt in her life. Pain that felt like it tried to burn her out. It came from the outside and from the inside, from ever cell inside her body, clawing herself to Neji, she felt his pain and hoped whatever that fox in her had done was over soon.

It was warm, where ever she was and peaceful. Unfamiliar noises like the chirping of birds… She abruptly opened her eyes. Adrenaline rushed into her blood, she actively sensed if there were any threats around her. There were no more birds. They had all fallen to the corrosive chakra of the Juubi years ago, along with most other forms of life. Only people like herself, who were naturally immune to it, had been sparred and those few they had managed to protect, while giving their chakra out to them to protect. Most humans had been whipped off the face of earth back then. Soon the other had build an immunity to it, but it really didn't help. They had already lost by then.

Naruto looked around and found herself starring at the green leaves of a tree in awe as if seeing a green tree was special. How long had it been since she saw one alive? Or the colour green? All they had was clothes in a red to brown or darker colour. Gently she brushed a strand of her hair out of her face. Ignoring the fact, that it was a brilliant red again and not a matted, dirt covered, dark reddish-brown. Or that it was long again.

"Kurama?" Naruto called out to her friend. Gaining no answer, no even a stir of chakra. Worry gnawed lightly at her. Kurama had always been a presence in her, maybe because she knew if he suddenly wasn't there anymore, she wouldn't be long either.

_"Kurama?" _she called out again, just this time purely in her mind. Still no answer. What ever he managed, had probably drained him badly, so she decided to allow him to rest. In hopes that her Kurama actually came back, because she needed her grouchy and grumpy friend. Now that she had seen a green, alive tree and chirping of wild birds she was convinced that Kurama must have meant time-travel. How that was fully possible was beyond her and she in no frame of mind to even attempt to figure it out. Like Kurama said, it was most likely a one-time deal and she trusted her partner on this. She laughed, for the first time in years, that it wasn't fully fake.

Naruto stood up, only to lose her balance and stumble forwards. Her body was smaller now, so of course her sense of balance would be totaly messed up right now. Her brain was thinking in her real size, while the body thought in its real one. She was caught by warm arms, but just by the gently pulse of chakra she knew who it was. Neji. She eased into his hold, relaxing.

"Is it real?" Her voice was lightly shaky, worried that this might not be true. That it would just be a strange fiction produced by her broken mind.

"Yes." His voice grounded her, made it true. So simply, yet unbelievable to her. Joy filled her heart along with new hope. Hope to fix the mess they couldn't prevent the last time.

"We can fix it Neji. We can fix it! This time we'll make sure that no one dies. Not Kiba, not Hinata, no one of ours." Her voice was filled with happiness, full of hope and warmth. Stretching out her senses she tried to find their chakra signals, just to make sure they were okay. The first to find was Lee unsurprisingly, they were rather close to a training ground he used. As her senses moved more and more into Konoha, she flinched, feeling all the negative emotions against Kurama in their hearts and also against her. Despite it making her sick, fiddly and agitated, she wanted to make sure they all were save. Neji pulled her closer, making it easier to brace against it. Having felt all their friends, brothers and sisters, she calmed, allowing Neji's chakra to calm her nerves. He had become her root to ground her in the war. She was the tree everyone saw, but even a mighty tree had just as mighty roots to keep it steady.

"They are okay…." They fell into a comfortable silence, enjoying the sounds distantly familiar.

"Hey Neji, do you know, when exactly we are?" Neji activated his eyes, looking for something that would list the date. Hopefully his range hadn't been cut down too much, he'd be miserable in his own way if that were the case.

"Shortly after Team 7 returned from wave. So, your change of personality could be blamed onto meeting Zabusa and Haku and that it finally sank in what being a shinobi means. That and a mix of 'I fooled you all'" Naruto just nodded, glad that Neji was there, she was be lost without him or Shika. They had been her advisors, they balanced each other rather well. Neji being the rather pessimistic one, Shikamaru being the realist and she the optimist. Well had had been long ago, back when she believed that with determination and love she could win every fight. She was more realistic now, she had to be. To kept them alive, at least as long as possible.

"Makes sense. So, we need plans. Orochimaru?" Naruto remembered what the man had done to them. To Yamato-taicho, to Anko, to their home. He had created the monster known as Kabuto. A monster that took so many lives. A monster they hated so much. Familiar chakra boiled in reaction to her feelings and she had to calm herself. She took a deep breath and the heat of the chakra slowly vanished, leaving her warm and in a slightly better frame of mind. Kurama was still reacting to her.

"We try to kill him directly at the exams, if we have to, use the fox's corrosive chakra, you gained from your father." Naruto sat down, still nor trusting herself to not fall over again, if she would start pacing, a habit she gained in the years.

"If he uses the curse seal to escape?"

"Then we sneak up on Anko and get rid of it or we seal him and then burn him. In case he escapes us, or he is endangering on of ours, we'll try to get him during the finals." As someone who survived the Juubi and its aftermath, she liked Neji's fast and partly cruel ideas on how to get rid of people, but if she hadn't, she might actually fight him to straight him out again, she managed once. Doing it a second time wouldn't be too hard. Nodding, at least they had some ideas regarding Orochimaru and they still had time to make them more fixated. Kabuto though was way harder, since he was a Konoha Shinobi, despite being a spy and many believed him to be loyal. Naruto looked to Neji and mumbled:

"Kabuto is going to be a pain."

"Not if we get the drop on him. He still hasn't got as much skill as he did by the time, we fought him in the war. A well-placed Juken strike is enough."

Turning around to her friend Naruto growled: "A well-placed Juken strike kills everything, that is killable!" She bit her lip in frustration when she saw Neji's smirk. She jumped right into his trap. Again. Just like the last 225 times he laid it out for her.

Hours later, they got to their feet. They had made a rather rough idea on what had to be changed, yet their bodies were tired, and both needed a good night's sleep. When they were getting close to the village Naruto was about to split from Neji, who stopped her.

"You are staying in the Hyuga compound." Starring blankly at her friend she wondered if he kind of forgot her background.

"Neji, we're not in our Konoha, where I was a welcome guest in your home. Currently I'm the hated prankster 'Uzumaki Naruto the guy who is going to become Hokage'." Naruto stated firmly, fear spread in her heart, knowing that the nightmares would come without him by her side. He couldn't say with her either, that would lead to ever more awkward questions.

"Who says they are going to know?" At the rather cheeky comment of Neji, her fear vanished and something lighter, more playful in nature, replayed it. Sometimes she hated the fact that all of the people she held that close to herself were geniuses. They always got under her skin, especially in situations where she was tired, nervous or back in a place where the most she could feel was hate towards her tenant, who had actually done nothing wrong and they always got her out of there. Smiling she leaned into his side, simply mumbling a 'thanks' into the night.

"Tomorrow don't forget your henge." She just nodded. She had forgotten that she used to run around as a male Naruto with hair blond like her fathers. Back before becoming a ninja she used to believe her red hair was cause of the hatred. It was rather ironic that she thought that if she looked like the Yondaime, who was loved, they'd stop looking at her with that hate. It were the stupid whisker-marks on her checks that gave it away, who she was, not that she ever realized it. Come to think of it, why did Jiji allow it anyway?

Getting into the Hyuga compound was easier than it should have been. At least that was what Naruto believed, but didn't say it out loud. Neji either thought the same or she was just being paranoid about safety. Though they did have the Byakugan, with which the most adults could easily see the entire compound and beyond. If something were off, they'd immediately notice it. She followed Neji though the unfamiliar corridors, surprised that they actually didn't meet anyone. It was rather awkward, that she considered Neji one of her best friends since the invasion, but actually only ever been in his home after Konoha had been destroyed for the first time. His room was very similar to the one she remembered, just the pictures were missing. She threw herself into his bed and rolled to the side so he could get in. In the war being close meant safety. She was saver the closer she was to Neji.

"Good night, Neji."

"Night, Naruto."

Calm breathing, along with feeling Neji's of calm chakra and the fact that she felt Hinata's chakra close enough to feel that she was okay, without actively using her sensor skill, lulled her into a dreamless sleep. They could fix it and they would. Heavens be damned if they fail again.

Edit: So after a long time I finally managed to edit my work. Thank you for all the lovely comments ( Thank you Syluk for the lovely comment and tips.) It is roughly 500 words longer now, I tried to put more feelings in, more details. Well you'll see. Mainly the most is the same. Just Details. I really do not know when the next chapter will be up. I found a quite bad plothole in what is already written of the next chapter, but yea. I do NOT have a beta and likely won't get one in the near future, had one once, was a bad experience. You can kindly point them out, if you wish to, or jsut do as most do, ignore them.  
That I believe is all.


	2. Chapter 2

_Gasping, trying to get as much air in her lungs as possible and as fast as possible, she dodged the explosive birds of Deidra, jumping over a swing of Kisame's Samehada. Ungracefully she landed in a pool of blood and guts, staining her dirt covered clothes even more. Jumping away from a water shark, her foot got caught in the ribs of some unfortunate human that had ended up in Kisame's path. Bones broke and one pierced her foot, causing her to stumble and crash onto the ground. Rolling away she managed to escape the worst of an exploding spider. Crawling to her feet, she knew she was on her last legs. Just one more mistake on her side and she was dead. Her left arm felt numb from the burns, while most of her left side was covered in them. Then she saw it, hundreds of tiny clay insects were coming at her, her last mistake. Buzzing was what should have alerted her, but the smell of smelting chitin finalized it. With a deafening explosion her world went icy then numb again. Like the other times. She didn't feel a thing when a glass shard shot into the skin of cheek. A shard of a glass she knew too well. The smell of burned meat made her sick as the smoke blew away and she stared into the remaining pieces of a close friend of hers. Starring at his arm, what was left of it, holes running through it, she lost it. Her pain was just too much._

Gasping for air she shot into an upright position, as if the dream had been reality, her lungs felt the need to gather as much oxygen, prepare for a fight-. A warm arm pulled her down again. She smelled Neji, smelled the forest surrounding the compound close to Neji's room, through the open window. It was only then her heard calmed, as the memories of the evening before slowly came back. Under her ear, she heard a steady, very familiar beat, slightly faster, but not by much and would settle in a few years to the pace she was so familiar with. Closing her eyes, she rested, knowing sleeping would be absolutely senseless.

The morning had been as strange as the night before. Neji and Naruto had eaten outside of the Clan compound, Naruto under the disguise of TenTen, due to obvious reasons. And both for now were ignoring her nightmare from last night. Neji would wait till she mentioned it.

"Okay this is the second day of Team 7 being back in Konoha. That means the Chunin exams are about one and a half months away. That gives us enough space to move." Neji simply nodded, agreeing to her reasoning.

"Do you have training today?" Naruto shook her head, trying to fully recall what exactly had happened back then. She really should have really paid more attention.

"Kakashi-sensei gave us the 4 days off. Though I doubt that Sas-" She trailed of and both trained Shinobi shared a look.

"What are we going to do with him?" She hissed in the old Uzumaki tongue, she somehow had picked up while studying seals.

"While I'm not really for giving him another chance, but here he still is a kid. Let's see how things with Itachi go and make a decision based on that." Naruto bit her lip to stop herself from remembering the man they had talked about. Or at least what he turned into. But no matter what she tried she couldn't stop the flash of pink stained in red in front of her eyes.

"Yeah, you're right." She switched back to the normal language. The old Uzumaki tongue was a language that was based less on words and more on 'vibrations', such as hums or growls. It was ridiculously hard to learn and only actually Shika and Neji had managed to get it down, Kiba had been good at it, but died too early to lean it fully. Though Akamaru had managed to learn it and that was how they managed to communicate with their comrade's brother and like that theirs. Sighing Naruto leaned back and finished her breakfast before asking Neji what he had actually wanted from the originally question.

"Come with me to training. I'll interduce you to my team and that way you gain some support, that your team utterly lacks. Until we can get the old Konoha 11 back together." Naruto nodded. She really didn't have anything better to do and she missed TenTen and her brutal honest way.

"By the way, is your …" she tapped her headband, getting the message across. He gently shook his head, a smirk on his lips, which caused her to put on the grin she stole from Kurama on her lips. To which Neji had to admit, looked strange, border lining on psychotic, on TenTen's face.

After that Neji and Naruto had moved to the Training Ground that Team 9 usually used, to see how much they actually brought back with them. Some skill came back immediately like her being a sensor or Neji's knowledge of the Juken and how to do it. It was kind of logic since it was more knowledge of how to use it, than it being linked to training, as well as that their chakra skyrocket, from an outsider's view. Neji had put it to the fact that since their mind had been severely strengthened and the fact that chakra was a mix mind and body. But compared to what they normally had back then, it wasn't too much. Just one thing Naruto wasn't looking for was learning chakra control again. Because that was most likely gone. They spent two hours of intense chakra control on both of their sides, just Naruto with about 200 clones, to make sure they didn't accidentally overload their attacks with chakra and potentially kill their opponents by blowing them to bits with raw uncontrolled chakra. Needless to mention, the forest further into the training ground did not look too good.

"Naruto put your henge on, TenTen is coming." Within the two seconds following his words all the clones that were close had vanished, but Nartuo was still in her usual looks, causing Neji to raise his eyebrow.

"I trust TenTen enough to know the difference between a scroll and a kunai sealed within. And it will be fun, pissing my Team off, that another knew my true looks before them." Neji just snorted, as he remembered when the others realised Naruto had been in a henge most her life, without realizing that Neji and Hinata had known that all along and that he was actually a she. Ino and Sakura had dragged Naruto through all of Konoha's clothes stores, until she managed to flee after two hours.

"Good Morning Neji." He simply nodded to TenTen, who caught onto Naruto's bright red hair rather fast and tensed.

"Who are you?" Both war-hardened Ninjas very lightly smiled, TenTen hat least still had common sense.

"Naruto. I'm a Genin like you." The other Kunoichi was still weary but seeing the headband and that Neji wasn't doing anything against her, TenTen believed her.

"TenTen the only sane one on this team, other than him." Naruto laughed, less at the description of Lee and Guy, but more because of the fact, that neither her nor Neji were particularly sane. Their insanity wasn't a worry case like Orochimaru's or Sasuke's but also not as ridiculous as Guy's or Lee's, just subtle enough to not stick out.

"So, Naruto, what is your dream? Mine is to become a weapons mistress." Naruto smiled at TenTens enthusiasm, before thinking. How could she phrase it, so it wouldn't sounded worrying?

"Well… I want to bring peace to this world, if there is something as such." This answer stunned TenTen, while Neji just smiled from where he was meditating.

"That's… a really nice dream, Naruto."

The girls chatted while Neji concentrated on his Byakugan, trying to regain a part of his lost eyesight back. He could sense Nartuo's happy emotions, which were taking in the entire training ground. He wasn't worried that she'd freeze or anything, they both were trained and Lee and TenTen's death had been quite a while ago. Speaking of that green moron. Neji groaned as two green blurs rushed towards them and deactivated his Dojutsu, not really wanting to see '_it_' longer than necessary. Neji bit his lips, he had his emotions way better in control than Naruto, but he was also happy to see his sensei and both teammates again, not matter how bad Guy's insanity had infected Lee. No matter how many times he cursed them and that his ears bleed from too much 'Youth!'.

Both girls looked to Neji, who had groaned, which caused TenTen to laugh nervously. Turning to Naruto she said: "I really hope my sensei and teammate don't… weird you out."

"I'm used to the weird."

"Guy-sensei is a whole new level of weird along with Lee." Naruto burst out laughing, and it felt good, she heard Neji chuckle as well, but that was more due to her enhanced senses from Kurama, than Neji chucking loud enough to hear.

"It is the springtime of youth my students!"

"Yes Guy-sensei!" Naruto sill laughed, it was just hilarious to watch Guy jump-kicking into the clearing and tearing out a tree along with Lee doing the same. At least the mass murdering of trees in the forest could be blamed on them.

"It seems like a new student found herself into this wonderful circle. May I, Konohas green beast, Mighy Guy know your name." TenTen just facepalmed and sighed, while Neji just shook his head, trying to hide his chuckling. Naruto calmed down, getting to her feet and grabbing Guy's hand.

"I'm Naruto, nice to meet you, Guy-sensei." She saw the man eyes widen for the fraction of a second but smiled, nevertheless.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto. Do you want to join our training today?"

"If I'm allowed, I would love too."

"Naruto-san!" Naruto looked to Lee, taking in his young features again. This time she'd make sure Gaara didn't crush a bone in his body. No one would hurt what was hers and get away with it, not this time.

"Not to be disrespectful, but how did you know we train here?" This caused TenTen to realize she had forgotten to ask that particular detail and she blushed lightly. Naruto smiled, truly happy to be here and just managed to enjoy the peace.

"Neji invited me. My sensei doesn't really train my team and rather reads porn books in public." The reactions she received were great. Guy nearly chocked on his salvia, while Lee simply looked shocked, TenTen had turned white as a sheet of paper. Neji had snorted, humoured just as much by the reactions as her.

"He what?!" It was TenTen voice that took on a slight shriek, Naruto remembered too well from the party where they drunk each other into oblivion and TenTen would jump at people, hiding in the shadow of an ally and shriek at them. That had been one of the most hilarious nights her life.

"Yeah, did I also mention that he is chronically 3 to 4 hours late and using excuses like 'A black cat crossed his path' or 'An old lady needed help.'"

"What kind of Sensei is that?!" Naruto sent a grin to Neji, the fact that he invited her went under in the shock and that Guy-sensei knew, really didn't bother them.

Guy watched his wheezing students along with Naruto. He had actually never seen her without her henge, so he had been surprised that she showed herself in front of him and his students. But that Neji, the arrogant little snort of student he had, had invited her had nearly caused him to lose his compose. Neji, who saw the world nearly darker than Kakashi once had, who had no need for anyone, who looked down onto everyone. Guy wasn't too sure what on earth had happened yesterday on the one day he allowed his genin to rest.

Naruto was sitting close to Neji, breathing heavily, she had managed more than he expected with Kakashi's rather lax training. She also had pointed out a flaw in how TenTen jumped, which would cause her ankle to gain damage if she continued to jump like that for the next 10 years. Guy had to admit, either Naruto managed to hide her smarts and play the idiot rather well during the academy and first genin days or simply the academy teachers had so much hate towards the secret slumbering within her, that they'd willingly sabotage her to this point. Biting his lip, Guy remembered that Team 7 just had come back from a C-Rank mission gone bad, so that could also have changed her a little. But that still did not explain how Neji and Naruto knew each other. Guy had lived through the 3rd Shinobi war and knew blind and utter trust, when he saw it and watching Neji and Naruto, they trusted each other like that. But trust like that didn't just come from playing on a playground or spending time together. That trust was gain when you repeatedly saved each other's backs time over time again. From certain death, torture and other just as gruesome things. Something that neither of them should have been exposed to yet and sadly had already been to some extent.

Guy had watched them more intensely after he had first noticed it. They checked in on each other every now and then. One hummed something, the other hummed back. While the last was rather strange, he himself had seen stranger. He was stranger, so a little humming wasn't something that would give them away as long as they didn't do it on missions. Guy just sighed, before sending his genin home, watching if Naruto split off or if she'd follow Neji. And unsurprisingly she followed him, said goodbye to Lee and TenTen. Then again speaking of Neji. He had changed, while Neji was never one to argue or outright fight, he did so subtilty, yet today he was calm and at ease. At peace with himself. Complete and utter peace. A ridiculous theory formed in Guys head. What if both Neji and Naruto had faked their personalities and Neji had only been so gruffy and cold to hide the fact from his clan that he was friends with the village patriarch. But why had they decided to drop the act now? Guy had to ask the Hokage, because this was worrisome, along with the fact that Naruto had openly stated that what they had done in their one lesson together had helped her more than what Kakashi had done with them until wave.

Standing in front of the Hokage, Guy waited until the man had finished his last piece of paper. Leaning back, Hiruzen looked to one of his Jonin.

"Guy what can I do for you?"

"Hokage-sama, were you aware that Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga are friends?" Seeing the raised eyebrow and surprise in the man's face had answered his question.

"That is interesting, I had believed that they hadn't had any contact to each other yet."

"So had I, but I was surprised that Neji had invited her to train with us and she appeared in her true appearance."

"What?" Guy simply nodded. Hiruzen leaned his head on his hands, pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers.

"I haven't seen her without that henge since she was 5 and now suddenly, she shows herself again. What a strange turn of things." Guy nodded again, agreeing with his leader's statement.

"There is also more. Naruto mentioned something that worried me, that their sensei only actually taught them something because they were chased by Zabuza, the rest was simply teamwork building. I agree that it is highly important, but Naruto worked near flawless with TenTen, when I had the two girls fight with Lee and Neji, so she really is not the problem there. I'm currently believing, that both Naruto and Neji faked everything about themselves and that he trained her, because she knew way more than she should as a fresh out of the academy genin." The old Hokage just nodded, shocked that his granddaughter managed to fake that much, but nevertheless glad that she had a friend. While Neji Hyuga might not really be a person who he'd want around Naruto with his personality, though if like Guy said, Neji's personality was also more like the one in Neji's childhood days, he'd be someone to ground her.

"Thank you, Guy, please report if you notice anything else." Guy nodded, before he had an idea.

"Hokage-sama, maybe you should allow Team 9 and Team 7 to go on a joint C-Rank mission. Nothing fancy, a simple message delivery to one our border patrol should be enough. That way I might get more insight into Neji and Naruto's dynamics." The old man nodded, partly already preoccupied with another piece of paper.

"Thank you again. I'll think about it, make sure your genin are ready. Good night Guy."

"Good night, Hokage-sama." After Guy left, the old man just sighed, before grabbing his pipe and lighting it. Watching his village pack up for the night, the man wondered what had made Naruto decide that Team 9 was trustworthy of her appearance and why now of all things.

Naruto opened her eyes and was in familiar place of a sewer. Getting to her feet, she walked the familiar path by now. Not often did she wake up so far from the seal, but then again, Kurama probably had been drained badly of whatever he had used. She entered the larger room and froze. Instead of seeing the familiar shade of reddish-orange fur along with bloodred eyes, starring down to her, she saw snow white fur, the tips of his tails in a light shade of grey. While his eyes still had the same form, the colour had change to an icy blue.

"**Comment on it and die."** She knew him long enough to know that it could be an actual threat or just a useful advice.

"I thought it was, if I die, you die too." Kurama, her gruffy friend, just growled, white fur sticking out rather ridiculously, but then again, it also did fit him in some strange way.

"**I can change the colour of fur, if you're are really so particular about it."** Having matured from the runt she had been, still didn't stopped her from asking that question.

"Then why don't you?" His paw smashed into the ground next to her, but she didn't flinch, he hadn't actually tried to hit her. Naruto simply smiled, Kurama never liked to admit things, as long as they could go unmentioned.

"But are you okay?" She questioned her fox, who just sighed, laying down, leaning on his hand in a very human fashion.

"**Okay yes. Actually, better than before, since I'm one again. Well actually more than one."** Naruto nodded, jumping onto Kuramas head, the safest place in her mind.

"How did you manage to bring us back?" She heard her old friend sigh, but he answered, nevertheless.

"**It's too complicated to fully understand, but basically I sacrificed my chakra. And by the time-travel it got purified, which is why I look like this. But not matter how purified my chakra may be, it is still corrosive to everything that doesn't have an immunity to it. Be careful touching your friends, other than the Hyuga, when you use my chakra."** She hummed a thanks in the old Uzumaki language, knowing what she knew, Kurama knew. She was glad her friend was awake again and her gruffy friend.

Later in the night, after spending too much time thinking about her dream, she woke up Neji, they had to plan. She really didn't want Akatsuki running around longer than necessary and they needed a fake name and appearance to kill the Nuke-nin, because two Konoha-genin going on an S-class nuke-nin killing spree didn't sound particularly good. That would cause them to end in T&I sooner than later.

"First, we need a believable backstory, one that would make sense. One that would explain, why we are only targeting S-class nuke-nin and one that is vastly better than, we're testing out our skills." Both swapped ideas, but every time the fact, that two shinobi that strong had to come from somewhere, made the idea go to waste. Naruto started pacing, she had grabbed that habit during the war, because she was doing something, even if it wasn't productive.

"This would be so much easier if one village had just been destroyed, then we could state that we had been ANBU there." Neji's head snapped up, making Naruto wonder what had giving him an idea this time. Really Shikamaru was generally better at those things than her or Neji, or both of them combined.

"There is one destroyed village that we can use, that only few people would question if we come from it." Naruto simply starred at Neji confused, she really wasn't on his wavelength this time. Neji smirked. "Uzu."

"It was destroy-." She smirked when she realized it.

"Of course, the Uzumaki's seals that were said can do anything. So, freezing two people in time doesn't actually sound that impossible. Blame it on our sealing master sensei, who sealed us to bring peace that he desired. And Uzu fits perfect. Our home was destroyed like Uzu." Neji nodded, understanding her hint perfectly.

"Yes, the whirlpool will be our reminder of what happened and will be our drive to make sure that it will never happen." Naruto sat down again, and they began to plot. Names, appearances, background.

I'm likely moving to A03. So should I not update here anymore, look on A03. Same username just with an underline between the names. I'm really getting frustrated with 's way of uploading because I have to tripple check everthing beause it reformats everything I do.


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